28042019 - No delaying minimum wage, go ahead and pay, FG tells MDAs, states, others

SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 28, 2019, PAGE 25
, Igbo,
:
rubbish!
security in the North’
y after stealing Nigeria’s money
late. Balance of terror is either a military coup
or civil rebellion like it happened in Sudan
and Venezuela. So this government is waiting
for the balance of terror. In other words, they
are waiting for forces that are more terrifying
than they are before they do something.
Do you think Venezuela’s ordeal is good
for us as a nation?
How can such be good for this country? But
what will happen in a situation where the end
of the road has been reached? There is no law
and order and this disabling level of corruption
and everything negative is happening. We are
just waiting to see what will happen next.
Those who are religious are saying “may God
bring better days” but before you can pray to
God, you have to make sure that you are clean
yourself. How can a thief pray to God? But
that is what most leaders in our country are
(thieves) except those who are the exception
rather than the rule?
But with this disabling state of our nation,
do you foresee better days?
Yes, absolutely after a constitutional
evolution or do you think things would
change in Nigeria just because you are asking
for it? For things to change for the better in
Nigeria, there has to be a constitutional
revolution, which means a peaceful change
of the system without divide, but if this fails,
as it happened in other countries, other forces
are likely to take over. For instance, Iraqi is
not at peace, Libya is not at peace, even those
who have lesser problems like Sudan and
Venezuela are not at peace. So what would
make any Nigerian, who has commonsense,
think that what is happening in these
countries will not happen in Nigeria where
human dignity does not exist, national
development doesn’t exist and only deceit and
vote-buying win elections? God cannot be
deceived.
What about those clamouring for
restructuring, especially the Yoruba, Niger
Deltans and Igbo, as the way out of our
problems?
Forget about the unnecessary clamour.
Whatever government you have, as long as
there are no free, fair and legitimate elections;
as long as the system controlling the
development of our nation is not based on
public interest but self-interest, the
clamour for restructuring and
confederation is all rubbish. Those
who talk about restructuring and
true federalism, if you ask them,
they have nothing to justify it
than talking about ethnic
nationality; they are not
talking about real
national issues like
unity, like democracy
and development in the
country. They are not
talking about issues
that compare us with
developed countries in
the world; they are
talking about things
that compare us with the
worst people. Nigeria,
with her resources, should
be compared with one of
the five
m o s t
blessed
countries in the
world. But these
so-called leaders
are busy talking about
voting into office this
useless person or voting out
that useless person into the
presidency, into the
legislature or into the
government house at the
state level, without
demonstrable credibility
and experience. That is all
they are talking about.
What about the disabling
insecurity in the North?
People are wasting their
time talking about insecurity
in the North. Immediately
after the civil war, when the
Federal Government
obtained the instrument of
surrender from the Biafrans,
armed robbery started in the
East. Before that time, I used
to travel from Enugu to
Kaduna, from Lagos to
Kaduna. I would drive in the
night peacefully and arrive
in Kaduna. I was doing this all over the
country as a civil servant and nothing
happened to me. But immediately after the
civil war, armed robbery started from the
South-East. Most informed Nigerians were
warning the Federal Government that the
rebels had surrendered but there was a
problem and that if government did not do
something about it, the problem would get
out of hand. It was not the problem of the
South-East due to the civil war and not a
problem we should be happy about because
the Igbo had got what they asked for as a
consequence of the war! It was not a national
problem but we said it could spread
throughout the country, and government did
not listen. Years after, there was an armed
robbery in every village in Nigeria. The same
thing applies to Boko Haram when people
were deceiving themselves that it was a
North-East affair. Also when the herdsmen
problem started, people were calling it a
northern problem. But the consequence of all
these is the failure of the government to meet
its responsibility to the people in the areas of
addressing poverty, unemployment and the
get rich mentality to the level that people are
engaged in kidnapping in virtually every
local government and every ward in Nigeria.
In fact, someone you know is connected to
someone that abducts you. As it is today,
nobody is safe for anybody to travel in Nigeria,
even outside your village because of the fear
of being abducted for ransom. So, we are
deceiving ourselves. Instead of taking
national measures when issues arise, we are
taking sectional measures until the whole
problem overwhelms everybody. As it is,
nobody is safe today! A cleaner is not safe,
the President is not safe; who then is going to
save Nigeria? Did you hear of the abduction
of an Islamic cleric in the North whose
specialty is the reading of the Quran? Why
did the abductors do that? Because they
believed that if they abduct such a person,
even if he doesn’t have money, there are others
who would pay the ransom to free him and
this is exactly what happened. So, nobody is
safe because the system and the leadership
have produced only thieves.
But how did we get here as a nation?
It is a long history. We can talk about that to
only those who have time to listen! In the 50s,
despite the level of poverty and limited
opportunities, these problems didn’t exist
because there was the obedience to law and
order. For instance, when I started work in
1953, nobody can steal a kobo of public fund
and get away with it, whoever you might be,
you are going to get punished according to
the law. But, today, you can steal one third of
the budget of the country and get away with
it as long as you are the
surrogate of the
President, a governor, a
minister or someone in
authority. We had a
case of a minister who
stole N83billion and it
was proved in court; he
But, today, you
can steal one
third of the
budget of the
country and get
away with it as
long as you are
the surrogate of
the President, a
governor, a
minister or
someone in
authority
was jailed for two years
only. Now he is a hero
in his community, a
hero in his state, a hero
in his political party
and a hero in Nigeria.
This type of thing is
what makes it difficult
for us to deal with the
disabling level of
corruption and waste of
resources in the
country because
everybody wants to be
something when he or
she has such
opportunity.
Do you think these
challenges justify the
call for true federalism?
True federalism and
restructuring are
different things
entirely. Those who
talk about true federalism, in reality, are
talking of true federal system of government
where power is shared between the centre
and the states and various units. Those who
are calling for true federalism and
restructuring are honest but the issue is the
problem of the regions.